A Lake Dwelling Mermaid
by North of the North
Summary: Mathew found out about the existence of magical creatures by finding his school's most popular hunk Francis Bonnefoy at the bottom of a lake. Now he has to deal with Francis following him around and meddling in his business all so that Francis can be assured he won't go yell into a microphone about the existence of mermaids. Why can't Francis just believe he doesn't care?
1. Chapter 1

This is a human au. It isn't told with the countries being countries, just so you know.

* * *

Mathew had been walking along the edge of the lake that was on the outskirts of the town he lived in, enjoying the view, and considering going for a swim when he saw something in the water. Now, there were many times where he really enjoyed how clear the waters were where he lived, and there were times, very rare times, that he didn't; this was one of those times.

In the water was a body.

It was the body of a boy that looked to be roughly his age. From what Mathew understood about bodies, they soaked up moisture. This body looked fine; it must have just been put there.

He had never seen a dead person before; he'd never seen anyone be intentionally hurt before. He tried not to think that someone had murdered this person and put them in the lake. It was best to think it was someone that had fallen in, and hadn't known how to swim, as bad as that sounded.

It didn't matter how the person had gotten there. It was the same either way, because now he was faced with a dilemma that had nothing to do with how the body managed to find itself in the lake. Should he lift the body out of the water so that it could have a decent burial, and not a watery grave; or, should he leave it there and pretend he never saw it so he wouldn't have to be questioned by the police about how he found it? Which was the moral thing to do?

Well, Mathew had never been afraid of zombies or any other form of the undead, he left that to his brother Alfred to do, and he didn't mind getting his clothes a bit wet.

So, he dropped to his knees as close to the shore as he could go, shoved his hand into the water, and grabbed onto the hand of the corpse floating in the water below him.

The hand tightened around his.

Mathew stiffened, and the body's eyes slowly opened. Mathew wasn't afraid of the undead; at least when he knows that they aren't real, but this was too much for him. This was real.

Mathew fainted.

When Mathew came to, his thoughts rushed back in at once as he noticed a person standing over top of him dripping wet.

Body, corpse, dead, alive…wait. Alive!

Mathew saw the boy frown at him before he blacked out again.

This time when he woke up, it was on a bed. The boy sat across the room from him on a wooden chair playing with his drying hair.

In a flash, Mathew recognized him. It was Francis Bonnefoy.

What was he doing beneath the water? What was he doing beneath the water not breathing for over ten minutes?

Francis glanced at him. "Oh, you're awake." He said sounding disinterested. "It took you long enough, Mathew."

Mathew coughed, and turned onto his side to speak. "W-what?"

Francis rolled his eyes. "Look, I don't particularly want to deal with this right now, and I don't think you've gotten over your shock just yet anyways."

He waved his hand, and Mathew had just enough time to wonder why he would do that when it felt like a wave hit him and his vision blacked out. He had just enough time to think that he was going unconscious, again, before he was.

"Are you ready to talk some sense now?" Francis asked glaring down at Mathew.

Mathew went to answer something along the lines of 'what?', again, when he realized his mouth was covered by Francis' hand. He couldn't talk, so he nodded.

"Perfect," Francis said then he sauntered back to his chair. "As you may have figured out already, I'm a mermaid."

* * *

Mathew may seem really weak in his passing out so much, but it does happen. Take this from a girl that goes into epileptic seizures and passes out whenever she gets a needle, has her period, or steps on big pieces of glass or sticks. I'm not on good terms with earrings either. Which is a shame. You have no idea how much I had looked forward to getting my ears pierced, then, well that happened, and now I can't wear earrings, and I have to lie down to get my flu shots.

It's the shame of my existence.

Yeah, I can bench press over 250 pounds… but I pass out if I get a sliver. That's exactly how everyone's opinion of me at school would change. Hey guys, North passed out from having a pen jabbed into her arm. Bam. The school gossip would change from "Don't stand next to North, she'll kill you." to "Jab North with that pencil, trust me, it's hilarious."

**Shame**…on me.

But at least I know exactly what it's like to pass out. Yay.


	2. Chapter 2

A Lake Dwelling Mermaid part 2

* * *

**Gilbert, Francis' friend, is actually a ghoul. One of the few intelligent living dead that have been around since the time of the Teutonic Knights (he had actually been one of their members until he was "killed" in battle, but didn't die and then had to go into hiding. Of course it was the one time he wished he was normal and had tried to blend into the population for that exact reason. But, the Knights had just seemed so cool, and he'd ignored the warnings of his parents that if he were to die early, he would rise as whatever age he'd died as. He hasn't listened, and now he was stuck in the body of an eighteen year old for life.**

**Ghouls like him, the ancient kind, lived a certain way. Where, after they died, they just kept living as normal. Only this kind of ghoul doesn't eat human flesh. He just doesn't eat anything. Or breathe. Or sleep. He's like an immortal, that got a second chance at life after dying once before. More material than a ghost, somewhere in between that and a living person.**

**Get it? Get it? 'u'**

* * *

*******Canada/Mathew's POV*****

* * *

Mathew had never been more aware of how many students went to his school before. Then again, he had never heard so many hushed whispers erupting in his wake before either.

Perhaps the two realizations were connected.

Or, maybe he was just imagining it and was just being a paranoid doofus. That was likely too.

Mathew just wished that they would all stop talking about him. If they were. He wanted to go back to being the quiet child with the best grades in class, the teenager that didn't believe in fairy tales or the creatures within them. The kid that only believed in science and a vague idea of a Creator.

Goddamn Francis.

Mathew had liked him better when he was just that handsome guy in his grade that he knew nothing about...besides that his heart fluttered whenever he was near. Looking back, Francis was a whole lot less trouble for Mathew back then. Even considering his sleepless nights thinking about him and his stupid long and wavy hair. Mathew grumbled under his breath and shoved the door of his history class open. More whispers broke out, and Mathew pasted a fake close-lipped smile upon his face, and sat down.

In class that day, they were talking about New France in the years before The Quebec Act and British Canada came about.

* * *

*****France's/Francis' POV*****

* * *

Francis was already sitting down in class.

'Maybe I should talk to him again. Gauge how much of a threat he is. At least he is rather pretty so I won't ruin my hard-won reputation.'

Mathew didn't look up until Francis had already dropped his books down on the desk beside him with a loud "thump" and sprayed himself into its adjoining chair. But he did jump at the loud noise and turned curiously with wide and slightly frightened eyes towards Francis.

"Um, hi, Francis." He whispered.

'He does have a nice voice. Maybe as good as mine from what my frog spies have told me about his singing when he's alone...'

Self-doubt, so rare to outwardly see in a being like him, does still happen to anyone, and it set in now.

He should have been a Siren, not me. I may be very handsome, but Siren-mermaid boys are, at worst supposed to be androgynous and exceptionally pretty; at best, beautiful and feminine and delicate looking like Mr. violet-eyed and wavy sombre gold with titian highlights haired Mathew. Darn him, how had he not seen this before?

Then again, I have noticed him before, and just never talked to him, and two I have gorgeous hair, just like him. So there.

Francis supposed, despairingly, if he'd just let go of that thinking now it would be so much easier on him. It was best to get rid of such thoughts, all thoughts of Mathew and about how he himself wasn't good enough. No doubt. He was who he was and was darn proud of it, damn it.

Mathew was watching him curiously.

"Are you okay, Francis?" He asked nervously before quickly darting his gaze away, shy, like he regretted talking to Francis at all and wasn't too sure how Francis would respond to him.

Francis noted how Mathew flinched when he shifted in his chair before answering. "I won't hurt you, you know. I was just mad at myself for letting my secret out so close to graduation. I"d almost made it through my Most Dangerous Years, as my parents have put it. I wouldn't have hurt you. I won't hurt you."

Mathew still looked doubtful, so Francis did something uncharacteristic. He then told Mathew even more about himself.

"You know how we're talking about how Canada came to be settled by Europeans?"

"Yeah, the French were fine enough with the native population, but later groups like the English weren't. It's a shame it happened as it did."

"My father was one of those French seigneurs who came over in the 1600's, before British North America was created when New France was signed over during the Conquest. My mother was a member of the third-estate, she was a pretty habitat on my father's Seigneury who'd captured his attention. One day, he lost control and acted on it. He injected her with his venom-"

Mathew looked scared again. "Ugh, venom?"

Francis looked over at him, before switching back to pretending to watch their teacher conduct the class, whilst still whispering to Mathew out of the corner of his mouth.

"A Siren has a special kind of saliva, like a snake, that we can choose to inject into humans. As a male Siren I am a bit of an anomaly. The Siren population has a ridiculously low male population, actually we have a very low population period. So, after we hit puberty, just as humans start to excrete a specific kind of sweat after puberty, we can do the same. Only this kind of venom, as we call it, turns a human into a Siren themselves. But, a Siren can only do it once in their life, and seeing as Sirens are mostly immortal, that leads to a very big decision. It is the Siren equivalent to marrying someone. It ties the two together forever. This helps keep our populations from dying out forever, especially as Sirens have a very low fertility rate.

Now, as I was saying before, pere injected ma mere with his venom, and she turned. But, at that time, you did not simply marry out of your caste system. She was a commoner, and he was a noble."

Mathew nodded. Of course, a Seigneur was the noble of a property and a habitant was a commoner who worked the Seigneurs land. That was basic New France knowledge of how land was first parceled up over by the St. Lawrence area.

Francis continued, "So they moved out West. As far as I know, they were some of the first Europeans to do so. it took them a while, but eventually they reached here, B.C. Father never told her what had happened, until I was born, and even then not for a while. From what I've been told, the turning process is actually rather pleasurable and they well, they were in a situation where her feeling good would not have been amiss, let's just say that.

To keep her out of the dark, father was the one who always helped me bathe as a child. But I didn't understand the secrecy. He didn't want to shock her, but I did anyway. Sirens age like humans do, normal, but we differ at puberty. I am actually a few hundred years old. When I hit puberty, my aging slowed down. Eventually, when I get to be in my twenties, I'll stop altogether. Anyways, when I was twelve, ma mere and I went on a secret swimming lesson jaunt. When my legs hit the water, I turned, and she screamed. It took forever for father to calm her down and get her to believe what was happening. She didn't want to, but father stopped suppressing their link so that she also turned."

The bell rang, and Francis looked Mathew in the eye again. "That's my story, I guess. Do you believe me?"

Mathew's lip trembled, and Francis fixated on how red and full it seemed, before he said, "Yes."

* * *

*three days later*

* * *

Francis looked over at one of his two best friends, the same one he'd been watching for a while now, and frowned when he noticed yet again where exactly Gilbert was looking at with such a dopey smile on his face. Why, of all people, had Gilbert decided to fixate on Mathew? Why now?

_He's mine._

Francis internally shook his head. 'No, he's not.' He told himself. He's nothing, just a problem to be monitored in case it turns on me. Mathieu is just trouble. Nothing more. Really, I'm just frustrated with Gilbert because, honestly, Mathew is a human! You can't fucking have a relationship with him anyways, why even bother hurting yourself over thinking about it, Gilbert?...

Francis sighed. He would have to talk to Gilbert about this later. For sure.

Gilbert let out a creepy love-sick giggle as he watched Mathew nervously start to bite his lip as he furiously continued to work on their assigned schoolwork.

Obviously, he appeared to be ignoring his own in the process. Darn Gilbert...Francis hated how smart the ghoul was though, even though he hadn't seemed to be paying attention during class and hasn't even started on their assignment, he'd probably be able to whip it up in five minutes flat later on once he wasn't distracted by Mathew.

Francis stared at the two curiously. Probably best to have their talk sooner rather than later. Why did it have to be Mathew that Gilbert went after? Why has Gilbert even seriously tried going after anyone right now? What had happened?

Francis certainly hadn't expected this outcome when he told his friends about the possible threat Mathew posed now that he'd seen Francis in the water. Argh, why was this all so frustrating?

He also hadn't expected to tell his classmate even more so soon afterwards with no prompting at all. All of his barriers towards him were down. Why?

He just couldn't understand it, so he'd been avoiding Mathew and just watching him, then Gilbert the past few days. Especially Gilbert after he'd noticed Gilbert's fixated attention.

What was he to do?

* * *

**Hiiiiiiiiiiii~**

**HUGS and WUVS~**

**Please please please review. I really want to know what you guys think. **


End file.
